WYSO Behind the Scenes
The first day my story for Community Voices went on the air, I was sitting in my room listening with a friend. My head was in my hands and my face was turning really red from just knowing that my voice was being broadcast all over the Miami Valley. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… the hardest part about radio (after you’re done writing your script) is learning to tolerate the sound of your own voice. I think I recorded my voice tracks at least eight times, and I still wasn’t super pleased with how I sounded. Alas, there will always be something that you think you could fix or could’ve done better, aaand that’s why deadlines exist!
But I had read this somewhere a few days before: “As far as I can tell, the key to being good at any creative endeavor is to have the freedom and courage to first be bad for a long time.” It made me feel a lot better because I think there is a lot of truth to it. I don’t think my story is great, just kind of okay. But you gotta start somewhere, right? So there I was, sitting in my room and cringing through the whole piece. It was a relief when it was finally over and my friend said, “That was really good! You sounded great!” That whole week I was kind of overwhelmed by all the positive feedback I got on the story. Like that great feeling of surprise you get when you finish a project that you never thought would end, and people actually like it!
I was also able to experience the discomfort that comes with having your story played in a room of about fifty people at the Screenless Screening. And if that wasn’t enough, I had to then get on stage and talk about it. The applause that happened afterwards helped to give me some courage to stand up and talk in front of everyone. I joked about how I had just turned 21 when I started working on this story, so I figured it would be as good a time as any to learn a bit more about beer and how it’s made. Everyone thought that was funny. But I was mainly interested in what Shane and Jacqui were doing and knew that they had a good story to tell. Talking about the experience overall, I shared with the crowd that during my last edit with Sarah I put my head on the desk and said, “uhhhg, I hate radio,” which is something that I’m sure most radio producers have felt at one time or another. My feelings towards radio now are more along the lines of, “yeah, okay… maybe this is something I can actually do.” I ended with talking about how overall, this has been a very rewarding experience and I’m very thankful for the opportunity to be a part of Community Voices. Again, I was relieved when the whole thing was over and my friend said, “You did great up there!”
It was really awesome to hear everyone’s final pieces and know all of the hard that went into it. Very proud of everyone in the class and super thankful for all the support I received to get my piece done.
Zeb Reichert made this short film about WYSO’s big moving day. It’s pretty great.
This morning I had the opportunity to attend a book release party. Mrs. Scavone’s first grade class from Mills Lawn Elementary School published an ABC book, All About Nature. This was my first time to really go out and do an assignment like this, so I was a little nervous at first. But after a few awkward moments, I realized that these first graders were probably more intimidated by the woman with a microphone than I was of having the responsibility to report on their new book. I actually ended up having a lot of fun interviewing the kids and hearing their answers. I posted my interview with Oliver to give you a preview. It seemed like he had more to say after I asked him all of my questions, so then I said, “Do you have anything else to say?” His answer made me laugh. We had to cut it short so he wouldn’t miss out on the group photo. Kids are awesome.
Now I’m working on editing it all together. If it’s good enough, it just might make it on the air for WYSO Weekend. Stay tuned.
Here is a vox pop that I’ve been working on for a while. I still don’t feel 100% satisfied with it. Sometimes you just have be done with one project and keep the things you learned in mind for the next one.
Here is the host intro that would be read before it:
How often do you walk down the street and wonder what a person’s story is, wherethey’ve been, and where they’re going?
What if you could ask them one question that was capable of shining a light on all of these things?
Jennifer Carlson asks Antioch students a question to find out…
The WYSO crew trying to get a van full of CD shelves out of the mud… never a dull moment.
